1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus having a function of detecting a face area of a subject and an image capturing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, it is well known that an animal (pet), such as a dog or a cat lives in an increasing number of homes, and with the spread of a digital camera or the like, there is natural demand for photographing a pet by the digital camera and recording the photographing result as an image (photograph). However, practically, it is not easy to photograph the pet successfully. From among many shots, it is very difficult to take the photograph of the front face of the pet. This is because the pet may not turn the face (front) toward the camera as intended, unlike a person.
On the other hand, in the related art, a technique is known in which an imaging apparatus, such as a digital camera, detects the face of a person and determines focus, exposure, white balance, and the like in accordance with the face of the person. For example, Japanese Patent No. 4154400 describes a photographing apparatus which detects the position of the face of a person in a screen, focuses on the face of the person, and carries out photographing at an optimal exposure for the face of the person, taking a good-looking photograph focused on the face of the person. In photographing a person with a photographing apparatus, such as a digital camera, in order to carry out photographing at the optimum exposure for the face of the person as a main subject, it is required to focus the photographing apparatus on the face of the person as a main subject (that is, to accurately detect the position of the face of the person). The invention described in Japanese Patent No. 4154400 can provide a photographing apparatus which is capable of detecting the AF/AE/WB evaluation value for the image of a frame serving as an object of a face area detection, accurately performing focus adjustment and exposure control on the face of the person and being resistant to the motion of the person or shaking.
For example, in taking the photograph (still image) of the front face of a pet with the above-described digital camera, it is considered that, if the shutter is depressed when the face position of the pet in an LCD monitor is detected, the face photograph of the face of the pet can be taken clearly. However, in the digital camera using face detection of the related art, it is assumed that the face of a person is detected thoroughly. For this reason, it is difficult to accurately detect the face of the pet and consequently, it is difficult to focus the digital camera on the face of the pet and to skillfully carry out photographing at the optimum exposure or the like for the face of the pet. That is, the face of a person is recognized from an image to detect the face, and the face of a pet cannot be recognized. This is because the face of a pet is different from the face of a person and has particularly various colors, such as white, black, brown, a mottled pattern, and a stripe pattern. In many cases, the body of a pet has the same color or pattern as the face. Thus, in the digital camera using the face detection technique of the related art, since it is attracted to color or pattern, it is difficult to appropriately recognize the face of a pet from an image.
The vicinity of the face of the pet is continuously targeted within the LCD monitor, and even when the face of the pet is temporarily detected, the pet does not keep the face toward the camera in the front direction. When the shutter is depressed, if the pet already turns the face in the lateral direction, it is very difficult to photograph successfully a quickly moving pet from the front.
In appropriately photographing a strenuously moving pet as a still image, even when the pet is moving, it is desirable to carry out photographing in accordance with the setting in which the digital camera is accurately focused on the face position of the pet. In the digital camera of the related art, however, it may be impossible to carry out photographing under the conditions suitable for photographing the pet. For this reason, it is difficult to appropriately capture an image focused on the face of the pet photograph as a still image. In carrying out photographing under the conditions suitable for photographing the pet, it is necessary that the user carries out an operation to manually set the shutter speed, the aperture value, and the like, causing complexity of the operation.